Tim Soper

Founding Partner

Tim was raised on the Devon coast of Southwest England. Growing up constantly in and around boats, Tim developed a passion for the sea that led him to study at the University of Wales’ marine laboratories on the Isle of Anglesey, where he combined oceanography and marine biology to earn an honors degree in Ocean Sciences.

Since joining his first expedition ship in 1994, Tim has spent two decades immersed in the expedition travel business. Working year-round as Expedition Leader, diver, boatman and guide, he has migrated with the seasons between the Polar Regions and tropics, gaining an intimate knowledge of a multitude of cruising destinations.

In the far North, as well as leading frequent expeditions to Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Tim has transited the North-East passage, visiting the islands of the Russian High Arctic; Franz Josef Land, Severnya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands, and reached the North Pole by icebreaker. He has led expeditions to the Canadian Arctic, Labrador and Greenland, as well as sub-Arctic Greenland, Canada, Norway, and Islands of the North Atlantic and Russian Far East.

In the tropics he has worked as Dive Guide or Expedition Leader on voyages across the Indian & Pacific Oceans, through Southeast Asia including the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea & Vietnam, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, East Africa, Central America, Caribbean, and the great rivers of South America.

In the Antarctic, as well as scores of voyages to the Peninsula region, Tim has led helicopter-equipped icebreaker expeditions deep into the Ross & Weddell Seas, and completely circumnavigated the continent, venturing to the far side of East Antarctica, and the seldom-visited Phantom Coast. Always keen to explore, he has pioneered many new landings and discovered a previously unknown Emperor Penguin rookery. This remarkable experience in the Antarctic has led Tim to be a representative to IAATO, where has sat on the Field Operations & Membership Committees.